By Dinah Alobeid

Human rights activists work to promote awareness, equality and freedom of speech among numerous other things. But no activist is more dedicated to doing that than 2003 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi, according to Jacqueline Bhabba, moderator and executive director of the University Committee on Human Rights Studies at Harvard University.

Ebadi has spent her entire life trying to create equality in her native Iran. She has faced hardship, disbarment from being a judge and prison time. Ebadi was a human rights lawyer from 1975-1979 and was the first female judge in Iranian history.

Ebadi spoke in the Stephen E. Smith Center at the JFK Library May 8, discussing her life in Iran. The bulk of her talk was concerning what she viewed as the unfair laws that exist today in Iran preventing equality for women, homosexuals, people of different religions and those with different political views.

Ebadi did not answer the questions asked by Bhabba in English, but rather had an interpreter translate for her. So whenever the audience clapped for a remark she made, such as “establishing democracy in Iran is our job,” concerning U.S. intrusion, she received two rounds of applause, one after she finished speaking in Persian and the other after the translator relayed everything to the English-speaking portion of the crowd. Everything Ebadi said in Persian was immediately translated by Mohamed Shaheen, the translator fluent in Persian and English.

Ebadi said she has always wanted to help those who deal with discrimination and hardship due to unfair human rights.

“Since my childhood I was attracted to something. Later on I realized that it was justice,” she said, noting she came from a family filled with Iranian attorneys. “My father, uncle and several other relatives were lawyers and attorneys focusing on human rights.”

Ebadi said that one of the first rulers of Iran promised to never force any citizens to change their religion or faith and to have equality run the nation, but as political turmoil changed the country’s regime, so did the laws and beliefs of the government.

Ebadi is mostly passionate about women’s rights in Iran.

“Women make up half of the world’s population,” she said. “To disregard women and to disbar them from political actions is to deprive the world of one-half of its capabilities.”

In Iran, the life of a woman is valued half as much as that of a man, Ebadi said. “We have gender-biased laws,” she continued, giving three examples.

One of the most violent allowances in an Iranian law is the law that says that if a man finds his wife and another man in bed he can kill both of them without fearing any type of punishment or judicial action, Ebadi said. She attested that this law negates government.

“This allows a man to be prosecutor and judge,” she said. “This law can be abused by many men because if a man kill’s his wife he can simply claim to have caught her being unfaithful.”

Another concern of Ebadi’s facing Iran’s female population is domestic violence. “We have a lot of domestic violence in Iran but a lot of the time the laws condone the violence,” Ebadi explained.

Later on in the talk, Bhabba asked Ebadi what she believed the main human rights concerns are in Iran.

“The most difficult problems women in Iran face is to change the laws regarding women and family,” she said. “We have many anti-woman laws but women cannot get involved in the laws because usually women get married and become familiar with an anti-woman way of life within families.”

During the question portion of the talk, the audience was asked to line up behind two microphone stands which were set up in the aisles if they wanted to ask a question and more than 20 people came forward.

Sam Bernstein, an English professor at Northeastern, was present at the seminar and was the first person to ask a question.

“Can [the U.S.] be confident that countries with nuclear knowledge won’t take advantage of that and attack?” Bernstein asked.

Ebadi’s response was a question of her own. “Are we willing to sacrifice generations of people before change occurs? Democracy is a culture and does not happen overnight. Precautions taken by the U.S. government sometimes go to the extreme,” Ebadi responded.

However, not everyone completely agreed with what Ebadi or Bhabba said. While answering a question about issues in China concerning civil rights, asked by Elizabeth Wang, a scientist in a pharmaceutical company, a row of women made exclamations such as “That’s not right,” and “What is she talking about?”

Despite those present who disagreed with Ebadi, most were present to hear her speak and to support civil rights movements in Iran and around the world.

“It is an honor to … be able to hear [her] speak,” Bernstein said.

The talk ran 30 minutes over the expected time as many people wanted to make long statements before asking Ebadi their question.

Randi Wiggins, a 24-year-old Boston resident, was inspired by Ebadi.

“She’s an amazing inspiration to women and men interested in justice around the world,” Wiggins said.

The message Ebadi wanted the audience to leave with was that the way to help bring democracy and justice and equality to Iran and other parts of the world is to educate.

“The most important thing to do is to inform people inside and outside the country about the unjust laws,” she said.